The Siths of Winbledt
by Lilith33
Summary: Darth Vader is send on a secret mission to find the ancient Sith's Elixir of Life for Paplatine. But, as he arrives on Winbledt he begins to understand, that Xizor's plot to kill him and Rebel's presence is his smallest problem... (AU)


DISCLAIMER: Regretfully, I don't own any of this.

TIME: Four months after "The Empire strikes back".

_A long, long time ago in one of the galaxies scattered around the universe..._

THE SITHS OF WINBLEDT

_" 'Come to me, sweetheart! I have a present for you. Eternity. Wonderful eternity. Eternity without pain, without hunger, without remorse. Without poverty, without hate. Without father and your seven sisters. Come to me and I shall grant it to you!'  
The girl looked at the Ghost with tearful eyes. Her lips were trembling, her courage living her. She wanted this. Eternity. Nonexistence.  
And then the leaves rustled and the ground crunched. Her wild pony was looking at her sadly. She gulped.  
'But Sir... Without love?' " _

"The Girl's Innocence" from The Dark Legends of Winbledt

_FROM: Agent "Devil" Molguardo  
TO: Lord Vader  
PRIORITY: Zero class  
SECRECY: gold ID  
SUBJECT: Sith business _

My Lord, I'm on my way to Coruscant. Will be in three days at the most. Winbledtians are preparing for your visit on their planet. Their king, Daniel Stuart, seems to think that the negotiations will be held in his favor. He demands the unconditional independence. Positively thinking, this one. Mood between the citizens differs a lot, from the mild approbation to the outright hate. The same applies to the government. I didn't notice any Rebel activity, nor any traces of your most wanted enemies. However, their own resistance group, calling themselves "The Warriors of Peace", or simply "The Black Scarfs" may cause a bit of trouble. There are well equipped for the ground battle, numerous (about four thousand of people) and have their secret supporters in the government, especially the Senate. If you wish their names, I will provide you with them personally.  
Also, I have sought out this ancient Sith temple about which you were asking me. It contained no items you are so interested with. To tell you the truth, it contained nothing, except for a few crumbled walls, a twenty centuries worth of dust and a couple of secret corridors, all of them long inaccessible. No books, no tapes, no carvings. Nothing. I have started to believe that the actual temple was situated in a different place, today long gone in Al'Dara - Huge Woods, the wild part of the planet. But, there are no traces of it, only the old dark legends remained. I have sent you the transcripts. Wish you better luck with them.

"This is Imperial City calling. This is Imperial City calling. State your name and destination!"

"Imperial City, here is Idan Molguardo. I have inboard three tones of first quality Kashyyk bricks. Special request from Lord Vader."

"And what is Lord Vader supposed to do with them?"

"To Hell if I know! Top-security. Well, there are rumors that he wants to build a dividing wall between his living room and kitchen... Aisha is pursuing cement just now."

There was a soft chuckle and a small holo of a woman appeared. She was clothed in tight, black jacket and leather trousers, her angular face set in grim determination to look seriously. But, if only the hologram was more exact, he was sure he would be able to see an unusual spark in her dark eyes. "Welcome home, Devil. I was greatly missing your incompetence. Our boss too. He is waiting for you as we are speaking."

"Love you the same, Sa'sani. Tell him, that I would like to fly to him at the light's speed. But firstly I want to make sure, that I won't burn his precious tapestries."

"You monkey. Better hurry up. He hates waiting."

"Tell me. Devil's out."

He turned off the connection and hit buttons on the control panel to initiate the programmed landing. Above him, Coruscant was a bit sleepy and misty, as usually at 4.30 in the morning. Bluish lights, marking the air-roads, were winking at him. Most of the windows were still dark. On the starry sky two destroyers were taking a nap, only the little red points on their edges informing potential intruders of they readiness to attack. Everything was, if only for a moment, as it should be.

Devil yawned widely and lay back. Such moments of blissful peace were rare for him. Vader's Elite Forces of Spy have always hands full of work. They were widely known from their effectiveness, being fundamental in supporting Dark Lord's power and influence. Thanks to them, he had an upper hand over his major opponent, prince Xizor, as well as many of the minor imperial lords, who were a constain pain in the butt. Yes, forces of VEFoS consisted of the best human agents throughout the galaxy.

Devil was, without exaggerating, the best of them.

But not right now. He was just back from his thousand-somethingst mission and more than exhausted. And Vader have already demanded his presence. What a nonsense of a job, he thought sleepily. He should have stayed on his family planet and run the family business. He would be so much happier with inbreeding of the horses, such a blissful, monotone work. But no, he was stubborn enough to follow his brother to the Academy and then he landed in the deepest... well, in the wonderful world of politics, lesser desires and the non-ominous court of Paplatine.

Just perfect. He was tired to the bone and unprepared to face Vader's wrath, which was thing as sure as bantha's tail. If only it was a bit of wrath... He could put up with a bit of yelling. But no, in the last few years Dark Lord invented a new, pleasurable way of dealing with his minor's incompetence. In agreement with proverb "The dead Gungan doesn't make the next mistake" he started to simply kill off said mistakers.

And this time it was Devil who mucked up his mission. And royally so.

Well, technically everything went as planned. He made sure that Winbledt inhabitants would pose no threat to the Great Empire. He gathered all the information about the local resistance group. He found this Sith temple and even measured the layer of dust. And there was absolutely nothing more he could do in such short time he was given.

The only problem was: find a witty way to explain this to the nearly-maddest person in the whole galaxy. Lord Vader himself. It was impossible, even if you were his favorite secret agent. And favor wasn't something widely known in Vader's ranks.

"Welcome to Lord Vader's residence. Prepare your ID for check."

His ship landed fluently on the small platform of Vader's home, which was no less than a private satellite, and a huge one. The moment he got off the board, a little, round droid flew to him. "Your ID, pleeeez."

Devil smirked. Such a mindful lord and he forgot to order checking his droid's vocal card. A little machine was looking at him pleadingly, so he took a tiny black box out of his trouser's pocket. Inside, was a silver electronic plaquette, which he put into the slit in droid's front. It's lights blinked green.

"You may come innnn"

Not long after that, Devil was marching through the long, black corridors, completely bare, if you didn't count the control panels on the walls. He stepped into the admission room (two straight-back chairs, one metal table) and looked around.

Empty.

Odd. It was nearly always the only place, where Vader was admitting guests. His private quarters, behind that room, were meant to be truly private - Devil wasn't sure if someone besides the Emperor, Vader himself, and no more than two of his agents have ever seen any of them. Devil thought that maybe he was supposed to wait. But it wasn't Dark Lord's way of dealing with his agents, even with this held in disgrace. If he wanted their presence, he wanted it quickly. So maybe...

He held his breath a little, while writing a security code on the control panel on the back of the room. The door opened with a soft "whoosh". He hesitated a moment and then, when no laser shoots killed him, he walked into the wall of warm air.

The atmosphere inside was that of quiet solitude. The yellowish pointed lights lining the wall were giving only as much light as it was necessary to navigate the corridor. There was something soft on the floor, maybe a rug, stopping the noise of his steps from echoing in the narrow space. Somewhere ahead a soft beeping could be heard. But, apart from that, there was no sound cutting through the silence. Nor any command to obey. Nothing, that could give him any hint to what was he supposed to do. Devil was at loss.

But he knew that Vader's summons was never pointless. He was also quite accustomed to the strangeness of his boss. So he decided to trust his instincts this time.

Door to the Dark Lord's living room. Better for him not to be wrong.

It opened the moment he put his ID card into the reader and, within seconds, he was faced with the dark stillness of the wide unlit space. His breath started to hitch, so he forced himself to remain calm. Stiffly, he stepped into the room and come over to the glass wall overlooking the Coruscant. The eerie mosaic of city lights and stars was the only thing keeping him from feeling confined and helpless. He was quite sure that someone (something?) was observing him right then, even if there was no sound of electronically evened breathing, which may indicate that his boss was nearby. And the darkness was hiding everything so well, that anyone else could easily believe, that he was the only person in the room.

Anyone, but not Devil. Not with this sticky feeling at the back of his neck. It caused his hair to raise. He gritted his teeth and with a determined glare looked through the window, where lights at the top of Senate building flashed red five times, informing citizens that yes, it was indeed five in the morning. He thought, that maybe this prolonged waiting had been part of his punishment. But Vader despised waiting. Surely, he wasn't punishing himself? Or maybe he was deep in the inner sanctum of his mind, thinking about bees or some other idiocy related to his Force, and he simply have forgotten about his agent? Devil didn't know what to make of that. And he felt his patience wearing off in the lightsaber's fast. Nerves of steel, yes. Nerves of steel were more than essential when dealing with likes similar to Lord Vader.

5.10 in the morning. Where the hell is he?

"Right behind you."

Devil, quite literally, turned into the sand sculpture. In some kind of maze he noticed that his mouth are opened and he is gaping at some unseen spot. I have fallen asleep on my ship and now I'm dreaming, he thought feverishly. This is NOT Vader's voice!

"Do you realize, agent Molguardo, that your thoughts are quite loud? Yes, regretfully, it's me. And I assume that you are ready to give me a full report on your progress on Winbledt?"

Devil didn't dare to turn. Instead, he took a deep breath to calm himself. Nerves of steel, do not forget about it.

"Yes, my Lord", he replied obediently. His voice quivered only a bit. He, some time ago, agreed with the notion that Vader would never cease to surprise him. But, if only the level of surprises kept increasing, he was quite sure the next time he would be given a heart attack. And he planed to make it to his pension.

"Very well, agent Molguardo. Don't keep me in darkness."

WHY is he not breath... Wait! Wrong attitude. He must stop thinking about who really is standing behind him. It's not doing good to his wits. And he needs them a lot to survive this conversation.

"Well, my Lord, I secured my position amongst the Black Scarfs, so to keep you informed about their activity. Everything else is pretty much as I described to you previously. King Daniel..."

"I'm not really interested in king Daniel's mindset. That could change easily, when under adequate pressure. I would rather you say me something more... satisfactory about your other mission. The more IMPORTANT one."

Right to the core. Whole Vader. Devil felt a chill running down his spine.

"The possibility of existence of any other Sith temple is very thin" he said simply and waited for an effect.

Rule number one: NEVER apologize to Lord Vader. Unless you have suicidal thoughts.

"Humph. And on what basis do you reckon it?"

Chances of survival increased to the ones of successful flight through the asteroid field. Not bad.

"I have, literally, not left the stone unmoved in this unlikely temple we get known about. Even it was a Sith place, in one point of history it was completely destroyed, its contains put somewhere else. Well, there are legends indicating that the second temple did or even does exist. For example that ones about Dark Ghosts of Al'Dara coming once a year to cities to take people's souls... Well, this are only legends. Of course they may contain a grain of truth, every legend does. But there are no people who have ever seen or heard about such a place. They are simply too afraid to make trips into Huge Woods, what leave the wild part of Winbledt unexplored."

"Surely you know, Devil, that for Siths such places had certain appeal."

Was that a hint of humor in Vader's voice?

"Well, it seems that the only one who can enlighten us is Grandpa Joano" murmured Devil, nearly to himself.

"Who?"

"Grandpa Joano. The winbledtian storyteller. He is kind of specialist on Sith history of Winbledt. Fifty percent of people I questioned were sending me to Grandpa Joano"

"Haven't you reached him?"

"Regretfully, no. He is living deep in the Huge Woods, traveling nearly the whole year. Coming to the capital only in winter. Now is late spring."

"Oh."

"If I had a little more time..."

"It's not relevant now. Anyway, I'm planing to remedy this problem myself. With my senses, it should be simpler."

I'm really not going to die today, thought Devil, feeling odd lightness in the chest. The same moment, a little bug of doubt crept into his mind.

"Wouldn't you be a bit... er... busy? Negotiations are going to take a huge amount of time. And I'm not very sure that the Winbledtians will approve your meddling with their shameful history... They are a bit sensitive, now."

I'm terribly cheeky, thought Devil with a bit of self-disgust.

"Whole Devil" said Vader ironically. "Always troubling himself with problems that are not his own. But, as we are going to work closely in the next month or so, I suppose it's essential to keep you informed. Well, agent Molguardo, I will tell you then, that I'm not taking part in negotiations. Change of plans. It seems that the Emperor found someone... ah... more qualified to fit into the role of imperial representative."

Xizor, thought Devil. Xizor kicked Vader out. Oh, holly shit.

The Dark Lord was practically reeking of anger. Chills returned.

"Anyway, the Emperor gave me another mission. He is really impatient when it comes to this items you were after. So, he ordered me to resume searching. Personally. And mind, that you are the only person who knows what is the real Emperor's business on Winbledt. It must stay this way."

"Oh, I'm honored..."

"Quit blubbering, Devil. It makes me sick. You are needed, that's all. Your part will be to go with Xizor and inform me immediately if he plans to do something inconsiderate. Like order Piett to burn away half of Winbledt."

"He is..."

"Yes, he is taking MY fleet. Again, Emperor orders. Don't ask about it, because I feel the urge to kill somebody. Slowly and painfully."

"Oh." Something came to Devil's mind. "My Lord... Pardon my nosiness, but you are quite... remarkable. It will be difficult to hide your presence."

The moment it came out, Devil known, that that was the most idiotic question he had ever asked.

Ten seconds of silence nearly choked him.

"Darth Vader, agent Molguardo, has nothing to do with it. When it comes to him, he will be sitting on Coruscant, keeping an watchful eye on Imperial City's politic. He will not even stick a finger out of the system. Now, if you are quite finished, go prepare yourself for a long flight. Your departure is first thing in the morning, with the rest of the officers. Aisha will provide you with a new identity."

Devil blinked. It might be the effect of being bone tired, but he couldn't quite understand.

"Aren't you Darth Vader?"

A light snort. No answer. Devil thought, that there was really only the one way out. He steeled his nerves and slowly, painfully slowly, turned.

A pair of midnight-blue eyes was regarding him coolly.

"But about this, of course, nobody will know."

AN: Well, that was the prologue. More in the next chapter. You will get the first glimpse of the crazy planet called Winbledt. R&R, please!


End file.
